Breaking News: Elon Musk has bought the North Pole and installed himself as Santa

A Nerd Reich holiday reading

By Gil Duran, The Nerd Reich, 23 Dec 2024

Breaking News: Elon Musk has bought the North Pole and installed himself as Santa.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about “President Musk” and his current effort to take over the US government. In recent days, #PresidentMusk has been trending on social media – not because of anything I’ve written, but because Musk has gone out of his way to make it crystal clear that he sees himself as the real president.

Donald Trump has even been forced to address the issue, assuring his supporters that Musk can never be president because he was born in South Africa. So, all this talk of President Musk is reaching Trump’s ears – and getting on Trump’s nerves.

Musk has lots of money, but very little self control. He needs to be the center of attention, all day, every day. But Trump has the same obsessive need to dominate, so I expect fireworks ahead. I’ll have more to say on that, soon.

Covering President Musk

Speak of the Devil: Journalist Jennifer Schulze interviewed me on the subject of how reporters should cover Musk. From the interview:

Musk has a talent for turning everything into a joke or a meme, but he is a fountain of disinformation and propaganda, and his plans are deadly serious. If journalism wishes to survive, it must evolve to cover these kinds of threats. Musk can no longer be covered as an eccentric tech CEO, and it’s unethical to give a known propagandist the benefit of the doubt.  To cover him accurately and honestly, he must be treated as an existential threat to democracy, free speech and truth. Because that’s what he is.

One of the biggest mistakes the press makes is forgetting that Musk is an enemy of free speech. He pretends to be a champion, and they repeat his false claim like fools. But the first thing he did after buying Twitter was ban a bunch of journalists (including me) for no reason. He is suppressing voices with which he disagrees and boosting those that parrot his beliefs. He regularly does that which he accuses others of doing. So when he calls others the enemies of free speech, he is telling on himself.

Read the whole column here: “Welcome to the United States of Elon” in the Heartland Signal.

We have a message for Donald Trump

BENINDY: We will continue to live in hope and in righteous anger, with courage, with long- and short-range planning and with a persistence faithful to the constitution, to those we love and to our moral convictions…

The Benicia Independent joins the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in this hopeful message

The New York Times, 8 Nov 2024

Dear President-elect Trump:

In case you had any doubt, we are the American Civil Liberties Union. And we’re not moving to Canada.

So, rest assured that when you target immigrants, dissidents, and your political opponents – we will challenge you in the courts, at state legislatures, and in the streets.

Surely, you remember the landmark lawsuits we won against you on family separation, the U.S. Census, and immigrants’ rights – some of which were decided by judges you appointed.

During your last presidency, we brought 434 legal actions, including 250 lawsuits against your administration’s anti-civil liberties agenda.

We also mobilized the power of our more than 1 million card-carrying members into the streets, at airports, and in state capitals.

We’ve developed a comprehensive roadmap to defend our rights beginning on day one. We’re not new to this.

At the ACLU, we play the long game. We’ve been around for 105 years and seen 19 presidents come and go.

That’s why any attempt to roll back the nation’s civil liberties on our watch will be hard fought and met with the full power of our resistance.

Steadfast and determined to make ours a more perfect union, we remain,

The ACLU

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